A research team at the University of Manitoba is cooking up ideas to help tackle the housing crisis in Manitoba's north, developing new materials made not from steel or concrete — but fungi.

Undergraduate research assistant Dominico Obmerga IV spends a good part of his shifts blending colonies of the fibrous fungi called mycelium with sawdust from a local wood shop.

"I'm putting more mycelium in, so I can get it to half-and-half," said Obmerga, stirring the ingredients together in a large stainless steel mixing bowl.